| Undying said: I think if handled wrong digital distrbution will destroy gaming. DD needs to NEVER EVER replace hard copies of discs...at least not for many many years. Reasons why DD will fail if anministered in the next 5 years. 1) Not everyone has T3 lines. I don't know about you but it takes me many hours to download a gig or two. Maybe it's where I live, but it takes about 20-30 minutes to download 1GB on my Sprint Broadband card. 2) Not every console is connected to the internet. No. But as time goes by, more and more countries will have high percentages of broadband penetration. Not every country has running water, or electricity, but that doesn't mean video game consoles can't be sold in some areas of that country, does it? 3) While some adult are fine with downloading their games kids would rather get their games at store. Thats your assumption. A lot of moms & dads like ordering their kids' new play toys off of Amazon. 4) I beleive most people would rather own a hard copy that they can trade or lend to friends. Even more would like games to be cheaper - which is something DD has over phyiscal media in spades. 5) Its still easier to buy games at the store than wait for them to download. Who here wants to download a 50 gig game? How long does it take you to drive to the store, and buy the game? In a system where DD was big, you could always queue a game for download when you goto sleep, and wake up with the game downloaded. Heck. I remember doing that very thing for the demo of Return to Castle Wolfenstien (120MB) on a 28.8k modem connection a few years back - 8 hours. 6) Hard drive space. HDD space will run out really quick if you are installing a bunch of games to it. Hard drives keep getting bigger and bigger. I just saw a 5TB server array w/ processors and all the fixins for $2000. |
DD needs to get bigger and better. But it's very dobutful that it will truely become the norm - it would disrupt the balance of power too much....video game companies need points of retail for their products, and consoles are either loss leaders, or neutral. Retail stores make their profits from games, and it's always an important incentive for the retail stores to carry games to make profit.
Having said that, I think there are new, and better ways that video games can progress, utilizing the DD system, and retail outlets. IMO, it would be nice to see a hybrid system: Game Publishing on Demand. Allow retail outlets to print new copies of games, on demand, for consumers. With a proper system, it would be pirate proof, lucrative for the retail stores, and reduce prices since there would be a major lack of non-moving product, and your inventory would be virtual outside of printing manuals and DVD covers.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
